Wildcat hockey will be without head coach Sean Hogan this weekend, as he leaves Thursday for Europe to serve as an assistant coach with the 2013 U.S. Men’s National University Team in the Winter World University Games. USA Hockey selected the Michigan native from a pool of applicants.
Hogan, now in his third year as front man of No. 12 Arizona (10-10-0), will miss Friday and Saturday night’s games against No. 1 ASU (21-0-0). It will be the fifth team he has ever coached.
“I’m excited about it because I’ve never had the chance to represent the United States at a level like this, so it’s quite an honor,” Hogan said. “I’m going to be on a plane to Germany during [the Wildcats’] game, so I won’t really know what’s going on until we land and I can take a look at the Internet and hopefully I see that we beat [ASU].”
The U.S. has scheduled games for Dec. 10, 13 and 15 in Trentino, Italy. The team will play Sweden, Latvia and Italy in a round-robin tournament for a chance to get into the quarterfinal round on Dec. 18.
The semifinals will be played Dec. 20, with the championship and third-place games taking place the following day.
Five Sun Devils will play under Hogan on the U.S. team, in forwards Brian McGinty, Danny McAuliffe and Sean Murphy, along with defensemen Alex Temby and Jordan Young. Other ACHA superstars like Thomas Krysil (Navy), John Olen (Illinois), Phil Wendecker (Davenport) and Wyatt Waselenchuck (Minot State) will play for Hogan as well.
Wildcats senior forward and assistant captain Andrew Murmes was in the mix for a spot on the team as well, but USA Hockey decided to go in another direction, Hogan said.
“It’s disappointing because he’s [Murmes] a very good player,” Hogan said. “You obviously want your guy on there.”
Behind the bench as an assistant for the first time in three years since he was with Western Michigan, Hogan will be working under U.S. head coach Scott Balboni, the former head coach of Penn State from 2006-2011.
“Any time you have the chance to learn more from somebody else, whether they’re coaching at the same level or higher or lower than you, it’s always good to broaden your horizon,” Hogan said. “It’ll be a unique perspective for me and a lot of fun.”
Eighth-year assistant coach Dave Dougall will take over as interim head coach. Today and Wednesday, Hogan will lead the Wildcats at practice before letting Dougall run the Thursday evening practice.
Before graduating from the UA in 1988, Dougall played for Arizona hockey from 1983-87 and was on its 1985 national championship team. He was a captain for two years, received the UA Men’s Ice Hockey Athlete of the Year award in 1987 and was inducted into the Arizona Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 as well.
This weekend, Dougall will be aided by his usual fellow assistant coaches, Larry Desmond and John Watanabe.
“It will be different not having coach Hogan behind the bench this weekend for sure,” senior forward and captain Ansel Ivens-Anderson said. “But we all love Dave [Dougall], Larry [Desmond] and the whole coaching staff, so we’re really confident ‘Dougs’ can step in and do a great job this weekend. They’re really great guys and they know how to coach really well because they’ve been around the game a long time.”
The Wildcats and Sun Devils are set to face off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday in the Tucson Convention Center.
—Follow Joey Putrelo @JoeyPutrelo
